GRAND RAPIDS, MI – With more than 60 restaurants and bars included in this year’s Cool Brews Hot Eats promotion, you may find yourself overwhelmed by where to start.

The two-week event, which runs from Monday, Feb. 17, to Saturday, March 1, asks local chefs and brewers to collaborate and create beer-infused or beer-inspired dishes that pair well with a local brew. The promotion is timed to highlight the Michigan’s Brewers Guild's popular annual Winter Beer Festival at Fifth Third Ballpark on Saturday, Feb. 22.

If you are looking for menu items that do more than pair well with a local beer, I’ve put together a sample three-course culinary tour that features dishes using brews as an ingredient. Here is an appetizer, entrée, and dessert to get you started.

When it opened 14 years ago, Logan’s Alley was known as a neighborhood bar that featured appetizers and sandwiches. Since Chef Aaron Adams came to the pub four years ago, that food has matured in quality and style.

“We’re like a gastro pub but don’t charge those prices,” Adams said. “Most of our items top out around $10. I like to still think of us as a bar that serves really, really good food.”

Case in point: The Two Hearted Mussels. This item is a regular staple on the menu but the Cool Brews, Hot Eats promotion would be a good time to stretch your culinary comfort zone and sample some mussels that have been simmered in an IPA broth of Bell’s Two Hearted beer, sliced onions, chopped tomatoes, wilted spinach and topped with parmesan cheese and garlic toast points.

Logan’s Alley serves nearly two dozen regional craft beers on tap so they have the “cool brews” portion of the promotion well covered, too.

Logan's special entrée for Cool Brews, Hot Eats will be a pulled pork sandwich simmered in the Fore Smoked Stout from Dark Horse Brewing Company. Details at logansalley.com.

Owner Johnny Brann Jr.’s motto for Kitchen 67 is to deliver a menu of fresh foods, family recipes, and the taste of the spirits of Michigan.

“On our regular menu for K67, we probably have 20 foods that we normally infuse with local beer,” he said in a phone interview. “That’s one of our main focuses. The support we get from New Holland, Perrin and Founders (breweries) has been really well received. They collaborate with our chefs to enhance the quality of our food.”

You will find beers from those breweries plus Bell's in everything from cheese dips to braised burgers to ribs and shrimp.

It’s the rib basket that caught my attention. The pork back ribs are slow roasted at a low temperature for 12 hours, infused with New Holland’s Dragon’s Milk and seasonings. They come served with your choice of a whiskey barbecue sauce or New Holland’s Bourbon Glaze from its Bourbon Barrel Liquor. Details at kitchen67.com.

Brann said he also is working on an ice cream based on Dragon’s Milk, adding “everyone who has tried it so far has loved it.”

The bourbon barrel-aged beer is one of my new favorite beers so I can’t wait to try it. But it isn’t the only dessert on my “must eat” list during Cool Brews, Hot Eats.

You may not think of craft beer when you think of Italian food, but Chef Jenna Arcidiacono, who won MLive/Grand Rapids Press critic George Aquino's Chef of the Year Award, says you may want to think again.

“Italians love their beers as much as their wine,” she said. “Just think of how close Italy is to Belgium and their amazing beer selection. My mother-in-law prefers it over wine.”

Arcidiacono admits she doesn’t use beer very often as an ingredient and will be focusing on pairing her food with Michigan beers during Cool Brews, Hot Eats, but she has come up with what sounds like the most delectable of desserts.

“I’ll then roll them in crushed malted milk balls from Sweetland Candies to give them some texture and crunch,” she said.

I remember pairing dark chocolate truffles with this beer at the Wine, Beer and Food Festival at DeVos Place last year. It was perfect, and this dessert might just take it beyond perfection. Details at amoretrattoriaitaliana.com.

You can try these three or create your own tour. Find a complete list of participating restaurants and a self-guided craft beer tour at experiencegr.com.